Think3 Adds Reverse-Engineering Tool

By Sara Ferris

think3 (Milan, Italy) announced thinkreshape, a new reverse engineering and deviation control tool suite that rebuilds the mathematics of a physical object. Thinkreshape 1.0 will be released with thinkdesign 2008.1.

Optical triangulation technology captures 3D objects of different sizes as 3D digital models in the form of a point cloud (mesh). Thinkreshape quickly imports one or more meshes and transform them with its point reduction, smoothing, and direct modification (Global Shape Modeling) tools. The result is a single model suitable for quick prototyping, FEA analysis, simulation, animation, control and inspection. Users can build a model of parametric surfaces (B-rep skins) directly on the mesh. The model can be used in combination with other software products or physically built by means of tooling or rapid prototyping machines.

thinkreshape is designed for companies in the automotive, transportation, molds, product design, consumer product and medical industries. It can also be useful whenever it’s necessary to start from a physical prototype in wood or resin or from any real object that has to be reproduced as a 3D computer image.

The product is the fruit of multiyear cooperation between think3 developers and a leading company in the transportation industry. The product starts with border curves and generates high-quality surfaces that lie on the reference mesh. thinkreshape produces trimmed surfaces, which means that the visible part is defined by the border curves determining the required domain. The basic surface is four sided and therefore more manageable than triangular surfaces, says think3.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.